Researches on Tea Agronomy

    Studies were performed to characterize the development of individual tea plant, the relationship between the population structure in tea garden and the yield production. The biological process of yield formation and assimilation of quality components as well as the affecting mechanism of light, soil properties, the supply of nutrients and water were thoroughly investigated. The research findings brought up innovations in tea cultivation technologies toward higher yield and better quality. Due to the improvement of cultivation technologies, adoption and domestication of cultivars tolerant to low temperature, the tea planting areas were expanded northward beyond north latitude 35 degrees to Rizhao, Shandong province, where previously no tea plants could survive under the cold winter.

    Investigation on the characteristics of nutritional demand, the development on the methods of nutrition diagnosis and site-specific fertilization program are among the major research fields. A number of fertilizers, i.e. compound fertilizers, bio-organic fertilizers, organic tea specific fertilizers and controlled releasing fertilizers were developed for tea garden under different growing conditions. The nutrient formulas were intentionally designed according to the requirement of tea plants in general and soil fertility in the specific areas. These fertilizers were applied to over 27 million hectares in main tea producing provinces, creating a total profit of 400 million RMB Yuan in the past several years. The achievements were awarded as the third-grade Prize for the Advancement of Science and Technology by the Zhejiang Provincial Government.